| Mende | |
|---|---|
| Mɛnde yia𞠗𞢱 𞡓𞠣 | |
 | |
| Native to | Sierra Leone,Liberia,Guinea |
| Region | South central Sierra Leone |
| Ethnicity | Mende people |
Native speakers | 2.5 million (2020–2021)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin Mende Kikakui script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | men |
| ISO 639-3 | men |
| Glottolog | mend1266 |
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Mende/ˈmɛndi/[2] (Mɛnde yia) is a major language ofSierra Leone, with some speakers in neighboringLiberia andGuinea. It is spoken by theMende people and by otherethnic groups as a regionallingua franca in southern Sierra Leone.[3]
Mende is atonal language belonging to theMande language family. Early systematic descriptions of Mende were by F. W. Migeod[4] andKenneth Crosby.[5]Ethel Aginsky decoded the language in her doctoral work.[6]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | plain | p | t | k | k͡p | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡ͡b | |||
| prenasalized | m͡b | n͡d | ŋ͡ɡ | ŋɡ͡b | |||
| Fricative | plain | f | s | h | |||
| voiced | v | ||||||
| Affricate | voiced | d͡ʒ | |||||
| prenasalized | ɲd͡ʒ | ||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
In 1921,Kisimi Kamara invented asyllabary for Mende he calledKikakui (𞠀𞠁𞠂 /
). The script achieved widespread use for a time, but has largely been replaced with analphabet based on theLatin script, and the Mende script is considered a "failed script".[8] The Bible was translated into Mende and published in 1959, in Latin script.[9]
The Latin-based alphabet is:a,b,d,e,ɛ,f,g,gb,h,i,j,k,kp,l,m,n,ny,o,ɔ,p,s,t,u,v,w,y.[10][11]
Mende has seven vowels:a,e,ɛ,i,o,ɔ,u.[12][13]
Mende was used extensively in the filmsAmistad andBlood Diamond and was the subject of the documentary filmThe Language You Cry In about the connections between theGullah people of present-day Georgia and their ancestors from Sierra Leone, beginning with the work ofLorenzo Dow Turner who documented Gullah memories of the Mende language.[14]
In 1908, F.W.H. Migeod, a British civil servant,[15] publishedThe Mende Language, which contains 17 stories in Mende with facing-text English translations, along with 13 Mende songs (lyrics only, no music).[16]
Ralph Eberl-Elber, an Austrian ethnologist,[17] published two Mende tales with English translations as he heard them in Sierra Leone in the 1935.[18]
The American anthropologist Marion Dusser de Barenne Kilson worked with Mende storytellers in Sierra Leone as a graduate student in 1959 and 1960 (her husband, the political scientistMartin Kilson, was also conducting research in Sierra Leone at the time). Marion Kilson then returned to Sierra Leone in 1972 for further research and in 1976 she publishedRoyal Antelope and Spider: West African Mende Tales,[19] which contains 100 Mende folktales in both the original Mende and in English translation. The introduction provides an overview of Mende culture along with detailed information about Mende storytelling traditions.[20]
For Mende proverbs in Mende and English translation, see "Some Mεnde Proverbs," an article published by M. Mary Senior in 1947.[21]
Numuvuisia Kpɛlɛɛ ta ti le tɛ yɛ nduwɔ ya hu, tao ti nuvuu yei kɛɛ ti lɔnyi maa hɛwungɔ. Kiiya kɛɛ hindaluahu gɔɔla a yɛlɔ ti hun. Fale mahoungɔ ti ti nyɔnyɔhu hoi kia ndeegaa.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
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